However, air fares pushed inflation down, as flight prices rose at half the rate seen a year earlier - the ONS said that the timing of when the data was collected may have been a factor - and fuel costs kept sliding. Petrol prices fell by 2.8p per litre between November and December 2012, compared with a fall of 1.1p a litre a year earlier.

In the shops, food was another upwards pressure on overall prices, with prices up 1.2pc against November. Clothing and footwear dropped 1.5pc on the month, but that was less than the larger fall of 2.8pc seen a year ago.

The retail prices index (RPI), which many see as a better reflection of the cost of living, meanwhile crept up to 3.1pc from 3pc. Despite reports in the market of cuts to mortgage rates, the difference was driven by mortgage interest payments and other housing cost which the CPI ignores.

"It's perhaps a little curious that [this] ... is showing a rise at a time when quoted mortgage rates are falling," said David Tinsley, UK economist at BNP Paribas. "It would be a surprise if it persisted in coming months."

Analysts said the Bank of England's incoming governor, Mark Carney, faces inflation that continues to overshoot the 2pc target.

Jens Larsen, chief European economist at RBC Capital Markets, said: "Today’s release takes us past the most significant increases in utility prices (a further small increase is due with the February data): inflation is likely to fall gently over the first half of the year, before picking up by the middle of the year, just in time for Governor Carney’s arrival: on our forecast, Carney may well have to write an open letter explaining why inflation is above 3.0pc in his first month in office."

While inflation has long been overshooting economists and the Bank's forecasts in recent years, analysts said the causes of this seems to be changing.

Michael Saunders, economist at Citi, said: "In 2009-11, it was chiefly due to gains in prices of imported consumer goods and general stickiness in services inflation. Now, the inflation rate of core consumer goods has receded a bit, while the inflation rate of “shop services” (i.e. services that you might expect to buy in a shop) in 2012 was the lowest for more than 20 years.

"However, weakness in these items is being offset by relatively rapid hikes in prices for food, alcohol and tobacco, rents and utilities (e.g. energy and rail charges). Prices for these items are generally less sensitive to weakness in demand and wages, and driven more by external costs and regulation.

"The continued gains in these areas make it even harder for the UK to hit the 2pc target."